Steve Robison, Author, Writer, Poet

Gratitude

November 24, 2010 9:08 am EST

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in my part of the world, a great time to reflect on all I'm grateful for, and on the meaning of gratitude.

What is gratitude?

Sometimes looking at a thing's opposites helps me to see that thing more clearly. To be grateful is to be thankful, to revel in life as it is. The opposites then, those things that keep us from gratitude, are unmet expectations, unforgiveness, a belief that life should be different, and a lack of acceptance. In perfect acceptance, perfect gratitude is easy, natural.

How do we reach acceptance?

Acceptance follows surrender. It doesn't much matter who or what we surrender to: God, the Divine Flowing Nature, the Oneness of All, our Higher Selves... We surrender the idea that we're in control, the idea that we've got the power to create the world and paradoxically, we come to the truth that we are indeed that Power.

But there are no shortcuts. To be grateful, truly grateful, requires acceptance; acceptance requires surrender; and surrender requires humility, an actualization of our part in the Oneness that we all share.

Want gratitude? Choose the courage of humility, of surrender, of acceptance, and gratitude naturally follows.